Suze Orman and Tom Hopkins Were Forged in Crucible of Failure, Says "The Expert's Edge"

CONCORD, MA--(Marketwire - October 30, 2008) - Suze Orman and Tom Hopkins have a lot of failure in common.

Financial guru Orman, an ex-waitress, blew her entire nest egg of $50,000 on bad investments as a young woman. Sales master Hopkins was fired from a sales job because he couldn't sell.

Their stories illustrate that thoughtleaders are "made, not born," says Ken Lizotte, author of "The Expert's Edge: Become the Go-To Authority People Turn to Every Time" -- http://thoughtleading.com/book_experts-edge.htm.

Orman, Hopkins and other business authorities like Stephen Covey, Tom Peters, Martha Stewart and Harvey Mackay also have in common their use of the thoughtleader's toolkit -- writing books and articles, public speaking and PR -- to get to the top.

Anyone can use the same techniques that vaulted these thinkers and others as far back as Ralph Waldo Emerson to thoughtleading prominence.

"Anyone who's an expert in just about anything can become known as a go-to authority in his or her field," Lizotte says. "It takes persistence, practice, publishing... and knowing the PR ropes."

It also helps to know how to make lemonade from lemons. Orman's financial loss, at the hands of an unscrupulous Merrill Lynch broker, inspired her to become an expert on helping women become financially educated so they wouldn't fall prey to such scams.

Hopkins' failure inspired him to try harder.

"Tom Hopkins' case in particular shows that by practicing thoughtleading, just like practicing anything, you can attain a high level of expertise at something that in the beginning may not have come very easily.... Without practice, all the natural thoughtleading skills you might be born with mean nothing," Lizotte writes.

His book, published by McGraw-Hill, is available at bookstores and from such online stores as Amazon.com.

Lizotte's firm, emerson consulting group (www.thoughtleading.com), in Concord, Mass., has helped more than 200 individuals and professionals services firms in the US and Canada become recognized thoughtleaders in their target markets.

To interview Lizotte or receive a review copy of his book, contact Henry Stimpson

Contact Information: Contact: Henry Stimpson Stimpson Communications 508-647-0705 Henry@StimpsonCommunications.com